Phone service change leaves church in the lurch

“Verizon and Charter say BAH HUMBUG to First Baptist Church in Holden!”

That was the subject line of an email sent to the newspaper this week by Virginia Heslinga, wife of the Rev. Jerry D. Heslinga, the church’s pastor.

Since Wednesday, the Holden church has been without phone and Internet service. It is never a good time to be unable to make and receive phone calls or use the Internet, explained Mrs. Heslinga in her email. But during the Christmas season, there are many extra worship services, activities and community needs. All that needs to be coordinated.

Rev. and Mrs. Heslinga, as well as the church staff, have been getting by with their cellphones and the rectory land line, which has been unaffected. But it hasn’t been fun, he said.

“Boy, you’re high and dry without phone and Internet service,” he told me this week. “It’s like, ‘Oh great, people might think we’re closed during the Christmas season.’ ”

It all started innocently enough.

About six weeks ago, the church decided that it wanted to switch from Verizon to Charter. The church could save several hundred dollars a year in phone and Internet service, Rev. Heslinga said.

“It might not seem like much, but for a church on a limited budget, it is significant,” he said.

The church contacted Charter, received a date, Thursday, Dec. 6, for transferring service from Verizon to Charter, and thought no more about it.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, Charter technicians came to the church “to make the new connections, and the workers said that coverings and an electrical conduit should be in place for wiring so they could come back later,” Mrs. Heslinga explained in the “Bah Humbug” email.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Verizon shut off the church’s phone service. Mrs. Heslinga said the turnoff was supposed to happen at midnight. Verizon transferred the church’s phone number to Charter.

Charter, however, apparently wasn’t ready.

Here is an explanation that Heidi Vandenbrouck, a Charter spokeswoman, emailed to me:

“During the transition process to Charter, the Verizon phone service and number was prematurely ported, or transferred, to Charter prior to Charter’s installation at the church. Charter had performed a required site survey at the church on December 6, with additional preliminary adjustments required prior to the actual installation and activation of Charter service on December 19. At this time, Reverend Heslinga is in contact with Verizon (as the official Verizon account holder) to verify that the church’s current phone number is operable, until the time the service is transferred over to Charter. A Charter Business Account Executive was on site at the First Baptist Church today, December 7, in order to discuss the situation with Reverend Heslinga and hopefully bring a final positive resolution to the issue.”

Philip Santoro, a Verizon spokesman, said that once Verizon shut off the phone service and sent the number to Charter, “We thought it was out of our hands at that point.”

It is outrageous that Charter is asking Rev. Heslinga to go back to Verizon, the company the church is dumping for Charter, and ask to return the church’s phone service for two weeks.

Charter, meanwhile is sorting out its “additional preliminary adjustments” that for some reason take two weeks to resolve, and won’t be providing service to the church until Dec. 19, six days before Christmas.

“The lesson is, it’s pretty easy to get caught between two telecommunications companies,” Rev. Heslinga said. “It’s the consumer in the middle when two telecommunications companies can’t communicate with each other.”

Representatives of Verizon and Charter called him, apologizing. While appreciated, he said the miscommunication still left his church without phone or Internet service for two days.

By 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Verizon had turned the phone back on. Charter made promises to Rev. Heslinga that they will take over smoothly on Dec. 19.

Would you bet your Christmas on it?

Contact Aaron Nicodemus by email at anicodemus@telegram.com or at (508) 793-9245.